USA > Illinois > St Clair County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of St. Clair County, Volume II > Part 7
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676
HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
In 1818, Joseph McClintock, from Bourbon County, Ky., with his family of eight children, settled four miles south of Belleville. In 1827, he moved to Belleville and became a merchant. Later he was a Justice of the Peace, and from 1843 to 1849 the County Clerk. He lived to be an old man. His brother James served the County as Assessor and Collector.
In 1819 Tilghman H. West and John H. Gay, from Virginia, settled four miles east of Belle- ville near Edward Mitchell. In 1824, Gay re- moved to St. Louis.
The southeastern part of the county, east of the Kaskaskia River, was settled in 1810, by the families of Hecox, Stubblefield, Perkins, Beasley and Nathaniel Hill, and James and Reuben Lively. During the Indian troubles of 1812 they built and, as occasion required, occu- pied a block-house. In 1817, William Pendle- ton, Andrew Free and Isaac Rainey settled in this part of the county. About the same time there came the families of Land, Dial and Cook. Isaac Rainey from Tennessee laid off the town of Darmstadt, and died near there in 1871. His son Jefferson was born near there in .1820, became a citizen of Belleville, was elected to the State Senate in 1875, and died in 1905.
In 1817 and 1818, there came from the East Caleb Barker, who settled in what is now West Belleville; William Fowler, who settled on the east branch of Richland Creek, became a car- penter, and did the woodwork for the first court-house in Belleville; Deacon Samuel Smith, who settled on Richland Creek east of Douglas, and finally died there; and Timothy Higgins, who settled south of Georgetown. In 1817, an English settlement was made in Prairie du Long by the families of Bamber, Winstanley, Threllfell, Coop, Newsham and others. The family of Wood came to that part of the country in 1806. In 1805 George Wilder- man with his ten sons, John, Jacob, Francis, James, Dorsey, Henry, Joseph, William, Levi and George, came from Maryland and settled in what is now Freeburg Township. In 1819, Samuel Ogle, father of David and Joseph Ogle, settled four miles northwest of Belleville on the road leading from Belleville to St. Louis.
The climate of St. Clair County brought much illness to the Virginians and others, and early physicians found malaria prevalent and obstinate. Wild beasts were numerous and a
menace to domestic animals. Prairie fires caused much danger and suffering.1 The pio- neer settlers were a brave and hardy race, who, by endurance, hard work and fortitude, made home safe from wild beasts and savage men in the wilderness and on the lonely plain, and by the exercise of patriotism and common sense built up communities where law and or- der prevailed. Grandfather's tales of the "good old days," with their romance and stirring ad- venture, might not fire us with an intenser in- terest than a tale in fiction but for the fact that he speaks as one having authority.
CHAPTER VIII.
LIFE OF THE PIONEERS.
WIIENCE THE FIRST SETTLERS CAME-PRIMITIVE CONDITIONS-EARLY HOMES AND METHODS OF CONSTRUCTION - FURNISIIINGS, FASHIONS AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS - THE PIONEER PASTIMES - AGRICULTURAL METHODS-STORIES OF INDIAN TROUBLES-PUNISHMENT OF CRIMINALS-LYNCH LAW-EARLY ROADS-MILLING TRIPS-LIFE IN THE AMERICAN BOTTOM-FIRST NATURALIZED CITIZENS-GERMAN IMMIGRATION SETS IN-LIST OF NATURALIZED CITIZENS-IMMIGRATION STA- TISTICS.
Most of the early American settlers in St. Clair County were from Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee; some came from Pennsylvania and Maryland, and a few from New England. Owing to their isolation, they had to make their own implements, tan their leather, weave their own cloth, hunt game for food, and some- times fight for their lives. As most of them were poor, they lived very simply; but they took pride in their homes and in their work, and lived on an equal social footing. Their houses were built practically all alike, as a rule, and were little more than a mere protec- tion against the weather. The people had plenty to wear and plenty to eat; but for them luxuries were not to be thought of. Their food
(1) Two men, who had sought safety under a cart, were burned to death in the American Bottom a few miles southeast of the ferry, opposite St. Louis. Sheets of flame hundreds of yards wide and many feet high sweeping over the plains before fierce winds, destroyed vegetation and human and animal life.
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
consisted chiefly of the flesh of the deer, bear, wild duck, turkey, quail and squirrel, and of corn and wheat raised by themselves. Plenty of nourishing food and outdoor life made them physically vigorous, healthy minded, and their simple manner of life made them an independ- ent, sociable and happy people.
LOG CABIN HOMES .- The daily life of the pio- neer has been many times depicted-carefully in history, and with scarcely less fidelity-in fiction. Each pioneer built his own cabin, which was of logs, and from fourteen to six- teen feet square. When a man was ready to build, his neighbors would come together, in- vited or uninvited, and help him. First, they felled the trees and divided them in logs of proper length. Then they began the work of construction. First they placed logs in posi- tion as sills; upon these they laid strong sleepers, and over the sleepers rough-hewn puncheons to serve as a floor. Then they built up the logs to the height of the eaves, placed on top of the end-walls logs longer than the other end logs and projecting, when in place, about eighteen inches beyond the side walls. These abutting logs were called "butting pole" sleepers; for on their projecting ends rested the lower ends of the inclined "butting-poles" which gave the line to the first row of rived-out clapboards. The latter, as the steep gables of the cabin were built up, were laid to form a serviceable roof, so as to lap a third of their length somewhat as shingles lap. They were often kept in place by the weight of heavy poles laid across the roof parallel to the ridge- pole and on either side of it. Then the house was chinked and daubed with a coarse mortar to make it, so far as was possible, wind and water proof.
The inside of the house was correspondingly simple and primitive. A huge fire-place at one end furnished heat and means of cooking. As another means of adding warmth, the ceiling was covered with wolfskins or other pelts or with the soft inner bark of basswood .. Light straggled in through greased-paper windows, or through sheets of paper saturated with coon-grease or bear's soil and carefully tacked over openings in the log walls left for that purpose.
PRIMITIVE FURNITURE .- The rude furniture and household implements of the pioneers were products of their own ingenuity. An axe
and an auger were about their only tools. Their tables they made from a puncheon, with four legs inserted in auger-holes; their stools were of similar construction, with three or four legs. The bedstead was built of poles, against the wall or was ingeniously contrived to draw up and fasten to the wall in the daytime after the manner of a primitive folding bedstead, so as to afford more room in the cabin. Some of the early settlers had knives and forks; some had none. The pack knife, or butcher knife, served as common table knife.
Horse collars, made by sewing together plait- ed corn husks, were easy on the horse's neck. Species of harness were often rudely impro- vised. The more inventive and enterprising pioneers soon acquired more conveniences than their neighbors.
"FASHIONS" IN EARLY DAYS .- The dress of the settlers was correspondingly simple. They us- ually wore homemade wool hats, and, in winter, deer-skin moccasins or tanned leather shoe- packs. In summer many went barefooted. Most of the men wore the blue linsey hunting shirt, and in winter many wore the white blan- ket coat (French capote), made loose, with a cap or cape to turn over the head, and the vest of striped linsey. The Americans gen- ally wore home-made shirts of flax or cotton; a few wore calico and checked shirts. They wore pantaloons of deer-skin and linsey, and sometimes of a coarse blue cloth. The women wore neat, fine linsey dresses made at home, and colored to suit the fancy with home-made dyes, made by boiling alum, copperas and mad- der with the barks of trees. Calico or gayly checked goods were used in making bonnets. They had practically no jewelry; even a gold ring was a rarity. The women used about eight yards in a dress. They made their dresses plain, with four widths in the skirt, the two front widths gored, and the waist very short, with a draw-string behind across the shoulders. The sleeves were enormous in size padded like a bolster above but tapering to the wrist. These were called "mutton-leg" or "sheep-shank" sleeves. They were kept in shape by means of heavily starched linings or feathers. They also wore neckerchiefs and many ribbons and bows. Often in summer they would walk barefooted to the church door and there put on their moccasins or shoes. About 1820 the style of dress began to show marked
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
change. Factory goods, coming in from the East, gradually relegated the spinning wheels and looms to the realm of the unused. Men began to wear "store cloth" clothes, and hence- forth had them fashioned with some regard to prevailing modes.
SOCIAL CUSTOMS .- Every pioneer carried rifle almost everywhere he went. On Sundays the men would stack their rifles outside the church door, there to remain during service.
The pioneers were always very friendly and sociable and ready to welcome a newcomer. When a log cabin was to be "raised," the neighbors would come together to work, and, incidentally, to have a frolic in true primitive style. The young men and boys would vie with each other in jumping, wrestling, running foot- races, playing leap-frog and shooting. The older men, meanwhile, would gather around and listen to some loquacious pioneer as he narrated adventures that befell him on his way to and from New Orleans by flatboat; and each would take his turn at the whiskey bottle, as it was passed from man to man. Log-roll- ings, corn-huskings, quilting bees, apple bees, and the like called together the pioneers, men and women, for many miles around. Provision for eating and drinking was liberally made, especially of "johnnycake" spread and baked on boards before an open fire, and liquor.
After feasting, the young people would turn their attention to dancing. Tables, chairs, dishes and all things movable were hurried out of the way, and the earthen or puncheon floor was cleared for the dance. The indispensable fiddler was autocrat of the occasion, and every- thing had to be done "like it was back in North 'Car'liny,' or 'Virginny," or "Old Kaintuck" or "Pennsylvany," where he was "raised." The pioneers danced jigs and three and four-handed reels, all very lively dances. The Virginia reel was popular. In the morning all went home on foot or on horseback.
THE PIONEERS' PASTIME .- According to Gov- ernor Reynolds, the moral tone of these people was very high; and theft, forgery, perjury and the like were of rare occurrence. Up to 1821 there were three hangings; a white man in 1802, an Indian in 1804, and Bennett, for the killing of Stuart in a duel, in 1821. Drinking was freely indulged in as a phase of social
life, and sometimes it was carried to a great excess at Cahokia and Kaskaskia and in other early settlements.
On Sunday the American pioneer would hunt, fish, break horses, practice target shooting or indulge in foot races. However, he would lay aside all ordinary work, except such as was absolutely necessary. As religious meetings were infrequent and irregular, the older Ameri- cans would read their Bibles at home. The French pioneer spent Sunday, after religious services, in amusements, dancing, raising houses, training militia, holding public sales, and the like. To him it was more character- istically a gala day than to the American.
As for amusements, the early pioneers played cards-especially "loo," a requisite to gentility -and spent much time at horse races and foot races and often squandered considerable money and property in betting on them. Governor Reynolds, when a boy, distinguished himself as a runner. Sunday afternoon shooting matches were popular, but many were held on Saturday afternoon. To the shooting matches came the contestants to shoot, for the prize, which often was a beef; the other men came to sit around, talk and drink whisky; the old wo- men came, with their knitting, and usually about every one else was present. In 1806 there was a horse race on the ice between Illinois and Missouri. It was arranged by Rob- ert Pulliam and others.
FARM BEGINNINGS .- Agriculture was at first carried on restrictedly and in primitive fash- ion. To cut wheat the settlers used sickles, or reap-hooks, and the work was consequently very hard and slow. They had their fields on the prairies, or in openings in the timber, often some distance from their houses. The Ameri- cans stacked their wheat and hay out of doors; the French, in rude barns, made of cedar posts set four or five feet apart, the intervening spaces filled with puncheons, and the whole covered with thatched roofing. They winnowed the wheat with a sheet. Their cattle and prod- uce they sent to New Orleans. Of butter and cheese they made just enough for their own use. All had large apple orchards, and the French large pear orchards, but no one cared much for peaches. The merchants traded mainly with the Indians, who bartered furs
Mansell Publishing / 1
Hours Very Truly DAJ. Bechtold.
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
and peltries for horses, guns, powder, lead, blankets and the like.
THE RED BROTHER .- The early settlers, for the most part, got along very well with the Indians. The French always gave and received friendly treatment; so did the Americans up to the troublous times that ushered in the War of 1812. However, in earlier times there was occasional trouble. In 1793, seven American pioneers, under command of John Whiteside, followed through St. Clair County a consider- able number of Indians who had been plunder- ing in the American Bottom. Dividing into two parties of four each, they attacked the red men from both sides at once. Believing that the enemy was in large force, Old Pecan, the chief, when one of his men had been killed and several wounded, surrendered and begged for quarter; but as soon as he saw how he had been deceived, he began to rally his braves for an attack on the whites. But the pioneers de- fended themselves and escaped. In 1795, Cap- tain Whiteside heard from a Cahokia French- man that some Indians were encamped near the bluff, intending to attack the settlements in the Bottom. Whiteside, with a band of fourteen men, attacked the Indian camp and killed all except one who ran away. In De- cember, 1795, Indians massacred the wife and four children of Robert McMahon before his very eyes. All of these occurrences and others of the Indian period are quite fully set forth in another chapter.
HOW JUSTICE WAS DISPENSED .- In the pioneer days, there was no penitentiary in Illinois and the pillory and the whipping-post were the only means of punishment for minor offenses. If a malefactor was whipped, from five to forty lashes was the penalty. Only one man, how- ever, was pilloried. That man was William D. Noble, punished in April, 1822, for forgery. No- ble was exposed for an hour in the pillory on the public square, then had to pay $1,000 to the State and $1,000 to the man whom he had tried to defraud. John Reynolds was Judge in the case, William A. Beaird, Sheriff, and John Hay, Clerk. The pillory was later degenerated into a respectable hitching post. However, the peo- ple in early days often took the law into their own hands, and brought their cases to "Judge Lynch's court." Soon after the War of 1812, counterfeit notes were so abundant that, in
1815, a company, with Doctor Estes as Cap- tain, was formed, to promptly mete out to criminals "lynch justice," at a place near Silver Creek. The effect was swift and sure, for the offenders fled, and the offense was stopped.
EARLY ROADS .- The earliest roads were only trails. The dirt roads were, for years, at times almost impassable. Gradually they were im- proved and the work of improvement is still going on. As the population of the county in- creased new roads were demanded and opened. In 1846-47 the Legislature granted to citizens of the county a charter to construct a macadam- ized road from Belleville toward St. Louis. The securing of this road, fourteen miles in length, was one of the issues of Governor Reynolds' election to the Legislature in 1846. It was the first macadamized road in the State and soon proved to be a decided advantage to Belle- ville, to East St. Louis and to the country at large.
"TAFFIA."-Not much intoxicating liquor was brought here in the early days. . Indian traders handled it but sparingly. Later, "Taffia," a liquor made from sugar, or sugar cane, in the West Indies, was brought up from New Or- leans. It is said to have resembled the New England rum. Later, came whisky and other liquors familiar to later generations.
MILLING TRIPS .- Wheat flour was not much used in the pioneer period. The people in all the upper colonies were compelled to go to Ca- hokia or to Judy's mill, near Whiteside's Sta- tion, for their grinding. Settlers in remote places often traveled fifty miles for their sup- plies of breadstuffs.
LIFE IN THE AMERICAN BOTTOM .- A consider- able settlement had been made in the American Bottom before 1800. It has been said that, for some years, more than three-fourths of the people in Illinois lived there. To a consider- able degree the men and women there gave tone and character to Illinois society at large. The customs there were "Frenchy." The peo- ple were courteous and merry. "When any work of importance was to be done," wrote Reynolds, "and it could not be put off any longer, the neighbors assembled together and organized themselves into a kind band of work- ing frolickers, and the job was done. The har- vesting of wheat was always performed in
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
this cheerful and jovial manner. No one heard of pay for work in harvest, in old times. House- raisings were the same. And if a neighbor got behind with his work, from sickness or otherwise, his friends "did it for him" without pay or reward.
"In those days, flax was cultivated, and often it was pulled when wheat was harvested. The girls frequently attended the flax-pullings, and then animation and brilliancy were infused into the whole atmosphere of the gatherings. A proper number of old ladies were mixed with the girls to see that matters were conducted gaily, moderately and decorously. Other wo- men were in attendance at the cooking depart- ment, while the grown men were out in the wheatfield, each with a reaphook or sickle in his hand. The aged men and boys were shock- ing the wheat and carrying water to the reap- ers.
"At noon all came in to dinner. Then there was a feast of good feeling in which old and young participated. The whole people, both male and female, would wash and fix up for dinner. These personal preparations were often hurried by young people eager for each other's society. When the pioneers mixed to- gether under shade trees at these gatherings, much kind feeling and sociability were en- joyed. Groups of old men were often talking over the Indian battles they had fought before Wayne's treaty, and what hard fights they had had with British and Tories at Cow- pens, Guilford Court House and King's Moun- tain. These old sires were at times excited, at such convivial meetings, with liquor and the wars, until they burst all restraint and swore eternal enmity against the British and Tories. It did their hearts good to exult over the manner in which they had hanged Tories in North Carolina, and how, at length, Provi- dence and Washington had conquered the whole concern at Yorktown. It must be borne in mind that these times were but a few years after the Revolution, and all the transactions of that terrible conflict were fresh in the minds of these old men, and perhaps many of them had been engaged in them.
"At that day, songs were much admired and enjoyed. The singer, as a matter of course, had a bad cold. He 'kotch his cold,' he said,
'by running after a wounded deer.' However, after proper solicitation, he
. . . asked, 'What song shall I sing?' Half a dozen mouths shouted for 'William Riley.' In old times, if a song was not sung loud, it was not sung well. Often this William Riley was sung so loud that it could be heard to a considerable distance. The singer finished, and the common praise was given to the song and singer, and dinner was announced. A table was erected under a shade, of the sides and bottom planks of a wagon body, placed on cross-pieces of timber supported by forked sticks set in the ground. This table was made in proportion to the company. All the dishes, plates, knives, etc., in the neighborhood were collected for the occasion. Benches, stools, boards and all such articles were prepared, on which to seat the company.
"Almost always two very dissimilar things were mixed together at these dinners-grace at the table, and on the table several bottles of liquor. It was the custom to use spirituous liquors at these gatherings. Sometimes these harvest frolics were closed up at night with a dance. At all events, all went home in fine humor.
"I do not believe that any happier people existed anywhere than in the American Bot- tom for twenty years, from 1790 to 1810. Those were the palmy days of the American Bot- tom, and such a feast and flow of good feelings, generosity and most of the virtues that adorn human nature, as were there experienced, have rarely existed in any country."
THE MAIL .- The early mails came seldom and quite irregularly. Some were brought in by boats. All were distributed to inland points by mounted carriers. One of the sons of Shadrach Bond was, in August, 1814, carrying the mail from Cahokia to Clinton Hill, north- east of Belleville, and in the Derush Hollow, then so-called, near the Bottom, he and his horse were killed by lightning.
EARLIEST NATURALIZED CITIZENS .- When St. Clair County was organized, in 1790, she had probably about 700 or 800 inhabitants. The earliest recorded information regarding natur- alization is dated October, 1816. At that time the following named persons were naturalized: John L. Schoenberger, Jacques Vanier, Fran-
68I
HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
cois Amoure, Louis Buisson, Louis Petit, Lou- ison Pensoneau, Antoine Dechamps, Francois Guignon, Pierre Verbois, Jacques Bourdeaux, Louis Pensoneau, and Joseph Ruelle. These men had been residents of Illinois from ten to twenty years. John Hay, Etienne Pensoneau, Samuel Gillham, Louis Binette, Nicholas Jar- rot, Michel Lacroix and Patrick Lee were their witnesses in court, testifying as to "moral character and length of service of said appli- cants." In April, 1817, Francois Boutellier was naturalized.
From 1817 to 1838 the only citizen natural- ized was James Davis, an Englishman, in 1834. The right of suffrage was granted to every white man who had resided in the State six months, and that concession tacitly implied citizenship. Early in the century, Frederick Germann and one "Markee" (supposedly Philip Merker) settled at what is now Dutch Hollow, along with William Meyer, Daniel Schultz, Samuel Holtz and Matthias Schillinger.
About 1815, Bernhard Steiner, Rudolph Wildi, Jacob Hardi and others settled at Dutch Hill. These men were from Switzerland. Steiner for a time was a peddler, and later made six or seven trips to Europe as an importer of goods. He carried on a large mercantile busi- ness, had a branch store at Kaskaskia, and was preparing to establish a watch and clock fac- tory; but before he had established it, he was killed, in 1821, on the way to Kaskaskia, perhaps by accident, probably by robbers. The sale of his personal estate brought $12,000, a fact that speaks for the great extent of his business, when we consider at how low a price articles were sold-thirty cows at $3 and $4 a head, and the like. Jacob Hardi later be- came a stockraiser of note.
IMMIGRATION ADVANCING .- Extensive immi- gration began about twenty years after these scattering settlements, however, and we all know now what has been its influence on the history of St. Clair County. In the eighteenth century, only about 150,000 Germans emigrated to the American colonies; but these have been a power. These were from the poorer and op- pressed classes, who, however, were better than the same classes in other countries; for as early as 1600 Germany had a good common school system. These German emigrants came here of their own free will, to found homes for
themselves and their children. They belonged to certain religious sects-Mennonites, Re-Bap- tists, and the like, not previously known in America. Later, as a result of the wars be- .tween France and Germany, there came among. the Rhine province immigrants, Lutherans and Reformed, including school teachers, clergy- men, merchants, tradesmen and wealthy farm- ers, who built churches and school-houses, as well as dwelling houses. The Germans have always supported the public schools zealously and liberally; and established and have main- tained a reputation for unswerving honesty and reliability. In fact, a German's word was, from the pioneer days, "as good as his bond."
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